LITERACY PROFESSIONALS PERSPECTIVES ON PROFESSIONAL-DEVELOPMENT AND PEDAGOGY - A UNITED-STATES SURVEY

THIS STUDY sought insights into literacy professionals' perspectives o n current trends in literacy teaching and learning. The questionnaire was mailed to a random sample of K-12 teachers, reading specialists, a dministrators, library-media specialists, and teacher educators in the U.S. Results are based on 1,519 responses. The report discusses findi ngs in terms of professional development treading professional literat ure, teacher education, and teacher research) and pedagogy (book clubs , portfolio assessment, and motivation). Results indicate that literac y professionals (a) read practitioner journal articles, books, and pro fessional newspapers more often than research journals or electronic s ources; Co) believe that collaborative experiences between mentor teac hers, student teachers, and teacher educators are important, but many of them have had little experience with such collaborations; (c) are f amiliar with teacher research, are interested in becoming teacher rese archers, and find their practices influenced by teacher research; (d) agree that book clubs are a valuable form of pedagogy, but most have n ot had such experiences themselves and fewer still have had experience s with book clubs in which multicultural literature was read; (e) have knowledge, experience, and interest in portfolio assessment, but do n ot agree that portfolios should replace other forms of assessment; and tf) find intrinsic indicators of motivation to be more meaningful tha n extrinsic indicators. Issues for further research are discussed.